Tukuni Sahu, the state commerce and transport minister, directed officials on Saturday to complete work on Malkangiri airport by December of this year. Sahu, along with Commerce and Transport Department Principal Secretary Usha Padhee, reviewed the airport's progress as well as other ongoing projects here.

Sahu and Padhee requested that the Roads and Buildings department, which is carrying out the airport project through a local agency, Taratarini Construction Pvt Ltd, expedite the work. The officials were told to finish the earthwork and road construction before the monsoon arrived. The airport is being built on 94.5 hectares of land at a cost of $33.03 million.

Padhee, who is also the secretary of the Skill Development Department, paid a visit to the Goudaguda Government ITI and Polytechnic College and interacted with the students. Collector Vishal Singh, ADM Maheswar Chandra Nayak, sub-collector Akshay Kumar Khemudu, and R&B department superintending engineer Nihar Chandra Behera, among others, were in attendance.